In my 20s (nearly 40 years ago) I heard a very loud sound coming from the overgrown garden of the house where I had a flat in North London. It took me about a year to work out it was coming from a Wren.  I realised the second smallest British bird had the most enormous song. That started my interest in birds and I joined the RSPB. 

One thing led to another and I learned to identify many birds by their calls. Any walk I took would always involve not just bird spotting but also noticing plants, insects and other creatures and wondering what they were - just generally being amazed by things such as a skin that had been shed by a snake! Holidays became a chance to try and see the local wildlife. For example, a holiday to mid-Wales involved looking for Red Kites (the only place you could see them in the '80s), a camping trip around Scotland meant visiting the Osprey nest at Loch Garten, spotting a Sea Otter on Skye and making eye contact with a Minke Whale while standing on rocks of the Hebridean island. I suppose all these things helped really develop that child-like curiosity, which I think most of us have if we allow it to come through.

I set up Ware Swifts in 2017. I was concerned about a development where there was a colony of swifts. For the first few years, I just shared information on Facebook. It wasn't until I met up with other local Swift groups, especially North East Herts Swift Group, that the idea of putting up Swift boxes took off and we've now put up over 100.

Last year I felt that many people in Ware still didn't seem to know that we had Swifts or that they are in decline. The birds are on the Red List, which means if we don't do something to reverse the trend, we could lose them. So, I decided to try and promote what we do and thought if I reach the young children, they will tell their parents. I saw an illustrated children's book about the life of a Swift and thought I could buy 10 of these for each primary school in the town. I applied for the Tesco Blue Token scheme, which awards grants to a variety of projects that have a positive impact in the local community. If we get this and do well, I plan to buy books for the secondary schools too and see if I can get them involved in Ware Swifts’ projects next year.

You can find out more about how to take action for Swifts and find your local Swift Group here.